Lancet Neuro: Cognitive Magic Drug Memantine Treats "Trisomy 21" Down's Syndrome

Down syndrome is a chromosomal disease, and is the most common neurological development and neurodegenerative disease
.
In a trial of young people with Down’s syndrome, memantine (a drug approved for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease) was able to detect imagery memory (memory imagery is the perception that is stored in the human mind).

The study used a parallel design and stratified by age and gender.
Participants (15-32 years old) with trisomy 21 syndrome or a complete unbalanced translocation of chromosome 21 were recruited from the community in Brazil and the United States
.
Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive memantine (20 mg/d orally) or placebo for 16 weeks

From May 13, 2015 to July 22, 2020, 185 Down syndrome participants were assessed as eligible, and 160 (86%) were randomly assigned to memantine (n=81) or placebo (n =79)
.
All participants received their assigned treatment

Changes in the scores of CVLT-II-sf scale during follow-up

In general, the main outcome indicators did not differ between the groups (CVLT-II-sf free recall total score, 0.
34 points change from baseline [95% CI -0.
98 to 1.
67], P=0.
61)
.
The memantine group was well tolerated, with mild to moderate adverse events infrequently, the most common being viral upper respiratory tract infections (9 people in the memantine group [11%], 12 people in the placebo group [15%]) And transient dizziness (8 people in the memantine group [10%] and 6 people in the placebo group [8%])

references:

Safety, efficacy, and tolerability of memantine for cognitive and adaptive outcome measures in adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial.